Both Teams were eager to meet each other this year, as this was last year’s Premier 40 Final rematch. A new looking FRCC team was ready to get some revenge after last year’s defeat. But the Pitch decided to delay the start of this intriguing match. After an 80 minute delay play started with both captain’s deciding to play one end. LCC won the toss and decided to bowl first.

FRCC openers Sumeet K. and Waqas C. played with caution in the powerplay scoring only 31 runs in the 8 overs. Raj bowled the 9th over and unfortunately injured his hamstring as he was delivering the 4th ball and after he bowled out his over, had left for the remaining of the match. This left LCC with one less bowler from their attack and FRCC knew that they could take advantage of the opportunity. But the introduction of Bhavya saw the fall of Waqas (12), who was brilliantly caught at short cover by the Substitute Fielder Shailesh Patel. Sanket Sharma joined Khule and the pair played very well. They pulled the match to the 24th over and looked to take FRCC to a big total but immediately after reaching their 50 run partnership Sharma (17) fell to Bodha caught at covers. Two overs later, Khule dispatched the first 2 balls from Karthik for six and he reached his 7th Premier 50, but immediately checked one ball right back to Karthik and was out caught for 56 from 66 balls. With 14 overs to go and the score at 100, FRCC’s Captain, Rohit joined Kidambi. Knowing they can reach another 100 FRCC batsmen decided to take a few more risks batting and running. Kidambi only made 1 before being run out. Rohit and Subhashish in the next 6 overs scored 40 runs and LCC knew they needed to change things up and bring the frontline bowlers back. Dhiren came back into the attack and dismissed Rohit for 14. With 5 overs to go, the LCC captain makes a bold and a bit bizarre decision. He decides to bring himself on and change things up. The decision paid off, Dharam bowled Afshin (1) with the very first ball of the over, and then the second delivery also produced a wicket. Vivek Madhavan popped up the ball to the keeper but the ball popped out of the keeper’s gloves, not knowing the keeper dropped the ball Vivek was still outside his crease and Sakthi flipped the ball to Dharam who removed the bails before he could make it back into his crease. Shiril was the only lower order contributor with 10 runs and helped FRCC reach a total of 183 all out in their 40 overs.

LCC had a big chase ahead of them and their openers knew that if they give a good start that they could chase the target down. Dhiren and Dharam opened the LCC innings and Dhiren was his normal self. Blasting away 3 sixes and rotating strike with ease. In no time they raced away to 48 runs and just as things were easing up for LCC, Vivek took a very sharp catch removing Dhiren for 37 runs from 26 balls. That got FRCC charged up and 2 balls later Rohit removed Sakthi, a bit of a controversial call LBW, but nonetheless FRCC were now in the driver’s seat with 2 quick wickets. But with only 8 overs bowled the rains came and the match was abandoned.

CSCC visited the city of Albuquerque this weekend to play their Premier games with ABQCC and UNM.

CSCC Vs ABQCC, Saturday 8-July-2017 - Reported by Kervyn Dimney(CSCC)

ABQCC won the toss and elected to bat. Good bowling from CSCC restricted them to 55 all out in 28.4 overs out of which 12 overs were maidens. Avinash was the pick of the CSCC bowlers with 3 wickets, and Prasanna & Narayan got 2 wickets each.

CSCC chased the target down in 12 overs but for the loss of 4 wickets. Nishant was the pick of the ABQCC bowlers with 3 wickets, with 2 of them coming off in his very first over.

Man of the Match: Kervyn Dimney for his 27 runs, tight bowling spell for his 1 wicket, and a good catch to get rid of Kunal.

UNMCC won the toss and elected to bat. UNM started well with caution and were soon at 34 for no loss at the end of the 8th over until Chaitanya was introduced, who quickly picked up two wickets in his first over providing the break throughs needed.

With CSCC bowlers bowling short spells to keep fresh, new comer Siva Kumar picked up his maiden Premier wicket. Good catching from Jayanth(3) and wicket-keeper Mohan(2) provided motivation.

Manoj Desai who was playing an anchoring role for UNM scorecard well for his 40 off 45, was dismissed by Chaithanya who was brought back into the attack, picking up 3 more wickets in that 25th over.

Chaithanya was the pick of the CSCC bowlers with 6 wickets, Kervyn with 2, and Siva & Narayan with 1 each.

Kervyn & Jayanth opened the CSCC innings and they started off well with 15 runs off the first over from Adnan. Murtaza was bowling well to restrict the runs and soon Jayanth and Narayan were back in the pavillion. Kervyn (36 off 29 with 5 fours and a six) soon fell to Aneesh and the scoreboard at the end of the 7th over read as 43/3. Sandeep and Viswa steadied the innings for a while bringing up the team's 50, but with Manmeet bowling the 11th over, he quickly picked up Viswa and Chaitanya cheaply, setting CSCC to 55 for 5.

Calmer heads prevailed with Sandeep Dubakka (18* off 30) and Hamayun Zaheer (30* off 27 with 3 fours and a six) as they ensured that no further wickets fell and they saw CSCC thru to the finish line with Hamayun finishing it off in style with a four.

Man of the Match: Chaithanya Kumar Chava for his 6 wicket haul with bowling figures of 5-0-15-6

UNM and CSCC Titans faced off on Sunday at Albuquerque on a typical dry and hot day in New Mexico.

UNM won the toss and elected to bat first. In spite of some hostile bowling from Prasanna and Hamayun, the UNM openers held the fort steady scoring about 20 runs in the first spell. Chaitnaya from CSCC created the first breakthrough taking the wicket of Jaymin gloving a short ball down the leg side to the keeper. That triggered a mini collapse, Chaitanya's precision bowling with some serious pace being the main reason.

However, Manoj and Rahul steadied the ship until Chaitanya came back into the attack and broke the partnership. And the tail did not contribute much ending up with a total of 106 and Chaitanya with figures of 6 wickets for 15 runs in his five over.

CSCC started the chase with Kervyn smashing the first over for 17 runs. This put UNM immediately on the back foot. However on the other end Jayanth skied a ball that was caught at mid on, and Narayan who followed at 1 down was run out in what was a lapse in concentration that led him stranded out side his crease when the ball that was passed by the keeper to the bowler hit the wickets.

With 5 wickets down and 52 to get UNM had a sniff at victory. But Hamayun and sandeep had other plans. With a calm head they piled on the runs and dispatching the lose balls to the boundary. In 18.3 overs bowled, CSCC crossed the finish line when Hamayun pulled a short ball to the boundary. CSCC had a tour to remember winning back to back premier games on the same weekend.